BlackBerry starts the layoff process as 300 are fired

Recently, BlackBerry announced that it was going to lay off 4500 workers, or 40% of the head count at the Canadian based firm. This process started on Wednesday when the beleaguered manufacturer let 300 workers go. Once the job cuts are complete, BlackBerry will have laid off 7000 employees in the last two years. At one time, the company had a head count of 20,000.

BlackBerry has agreed to be taken private in a $4.7 billion deal led by its biggestr stockholder, Fairfax Financial. In addition, another financial firm, Cerberus Capital Management has been sniffing around the company as well. Perhaps more interesting is the name of the tech companies looking at BlackBerry. Those names include Samsung, LG, SAP, Microsoft and Cisco.

Besides the handset and tablet business, BlackBerry offers software based services to the enterprise which companies like Google, SAP and Microsoft might find interesting.

"We are in a period of transition and we must focus on enhancing our financial results to be in a better position to compete in this current mobile environment. We recognize our local employees’ hard work on behalf of our company and the difficulty of this news."-Rebecca Freiburger, BlackBerry spokesperson.

Windows isnt open source and its dominating the pc/laptop market for the last decades. Open source doesnt equal success. Jist cause android did it.. Anyway too many mistakes by BB. Mediocore hardware. They came too late. Illusional CEO. All of that equals failure. To succeed in the mobile industry now days you need 3 points. If 1 of 3 is weak you will fail. Great ecosystem. Great OS. Great hardware,

I feel for those and their families who lost their Jobs. I bet none of them get a golden parachute like the Co-CEO or Board of directors. Two weeks severance package or maybe 2 weeks pay for every year you worked at Blackberry ( you would have to work at BB for 25+ years to get 1 year worth of paid severance. Meanwhile the guys with the suits< board and Ceos make off for life). Some world we live in.

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